- Don't smoke
- Drink alcohol only moderately
- Eat 4-5 servings of fruits & vegetables daily
- Get regular exercise
The following foods are often under-appreciated as being good representatives from these groups, but can (and should) be a regular part of an overall good diet:
Juice. I would confidently classify a glass of 100% juice as a legitimate fruit or vegetable serving. Even monkeys sometimes squeeze out the juice of fruits, leaving the pulp and fiber behind. Juice from any fruit or vegetable counts here. You can even use a mechanical "juicer" which can take something like a whole apple and reduces it into a pulpy drink. That way, you get the juice experience but are really consuming the whole fruit. Most juices bought at the store do not have this much pulp and fiber, which is why I would only allow juice to count for 1 serving a day, even if I drink several glasses.
Potatoes. Good news for all you red-blooded Americans! These tasty tubers are truly a vegetable as well as a starch. That is, if you prepare them properly. In my kitchen, if you leave the skins on and cook them through low-temperature baking or steaming, you can safely call your potato a vegetable. Deep frying or french frying destroys much of the nutrition, leaving only a serving of starch and removing all vegetable-ness. Boiling is okay, but you do lose some nutrition that way. Again, I wouldn't lean on potatoes as being your only representative vegetable, but they can get you a serving.
Beans. Not talking green beans, here. We're talking black beans, kidney beans, re-fried beans, lentils and garbanzos (chic peas). Even split peas. Hailed in recent years for their high protein content, they are often seen as a (partial) substitute for meat. In a 2-to-1 combination of whole grains and legumes (beans), they do provide very good complete protein (vegetarians still need to find their B-12 somehow, but they can get their protein through this formula). Let's not forget, though, that beans are also a vegetable. Like potatoes, they double-count among two "groups"--in this case, proteins and veggies. They are high in fiber and antioxidants, and should be a part of everyone's diet, vegetarian or not.
Tomato Sauce. Thick tomato-based sauces are very good for you. In fact, the long cooking process of traditional pasta sauces actually makes more of the antioxidants in tomatoes available for your body that by eating raw tomatoes. Bring on the chili, pasta sauces and tomato-based soups! Its a serving of vegetables (er . . . or maybe fruit, or whatever a tomato is).
Salsa. Who doesn't love salsa? It is one of the many blessings of Mexican cuisine, and its gifts do not stop giving. At its most basic, it's chopped up tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, onion, garlic, etc. A tomato salad! Its a magnificent food and one of the healthiest things going. Eat lots of it!
So you see here, even the most meat-addicted person you know can probably eek out several servings a day by making moderate adjustments--a glass of juice in the morning, a bowl of chili for lunch (which would be 2 servings--beans and tomatoes) and some steamed potatoes as part of a dinner. I count 4 servings there!
A big problem is that many people in our culture don't know how to incorporate fruits & veggies into their diet. Too often, people think that "eating veggies" means getting a salad or opening up a can of corn and dumping it on your plate. With those strategies, it's no wonder people are unenthusiastic about them. Some people look at the goal of "4-5 servings daily" and write it off as being too difficult. They just flat-out aren't going to sit down with a stalk of raw broccoli and start munching, and to do that 4-5 times daily is outrageous. As we have seen from the above examples, though, eating fruits and veggies is well within the range of the average American, perhaps with a few targeted adjustments.
You can cut up onions, carrots, peppers or tomatoes and put them into almost any meat dish. Try incorporating them into hamburger patties or meatloaf. I put carrots in pasta sauce. You can throw some corn or peas into Ramen Noodles (not my first choice for a meal due to the MSG content, but "augmenting" Ramen Noodle dishes is how I started cooking). One of my favorite things is to cook lima beans in the same pan as turkey burgers. The juice from the turkey burgers really flavor the lima beans nicely. As far as I'm concerned, if there's meat cooking in a pan, there should also be a veggie in there, too, mixing in the juices. I like to keep a number of frozen veggies on hand, so I can throw a handful into something when I'm ready for it. Being frozen, I don't have to worry about spoilage if I don't use them right away.
You can dump a can of diced tomatoes into just about anything: Rice, roasts, soups, casseroles. Tomato sauce can be put into anything, as well. You can sneak veggies in all over the place. You can puree veggies and throw them into soups or in sauces. Your kids will never know what they're eating.
No one should grill out without skewers stuffed with mushrooms, onions, and peppers. Asparagus lays nicely across a grill, as well.
I'm not a big fruit fan, so I try to get it out of the way early in the morning. I eat a banana, apple or plum on the way to work, or throw a handful of berries into oatmeal at the office. I always chase my coffee with a tall glass of orange juice (and have rarely gotten a caffeine headache since doing this, by the way). I have found this is pretty easy to do, and I end up with 2 servings under my belt early in the day.
Salads are certainly wonderful. Green leafy vegetables are an essential kind of vegetable. But with the high cost of iceberg lettuce and their virtually non-existent nutritional value, there are better options. I do love a crisp slab of iceberg lettuce on a sandwich every now and then, but you're not getting much bang for your buck. (Considering the way scientists have reconsidered the nutritional value of many foods, I would not be surprised if one day we hear about some hidden benefits of iceberg lettuce. It wasn't long ago that tomatoes, sweet corn and onions were considered tasty but useless. Tomatoes are now the golden child of the nutritional spectrum with the discovery of lycopene. Maybe the cucumber will be resurrected someday, as well. Right now, it is considered not much more than a glorified form of water). The best green leafies will be spinach or just about any other salad green, especially dandelion greens, clover, etc.
The important thing about fruits & veggies is that you get as much variety as you can. "Fruit" is an umbrella term that incorporates sub-groups such as berries, citrus, melons as well as your apples and bananas. You'll want representation from all of these groups.
Vegetables are similar: Mixing up different colors of veggies is a good way know that you are rounding out your nutrition. Root veggies, green leafies, etc.
Try to balance raw and cooked items, and fresh whenever possible.
To really get a broad, diverse diet of fruits and vegetables, you are going to have to eat some raw, green vegetables at some point. I'm sorry, but there's no getting around that. The good news of this post is that you can get most of your fruits & veggies through foods that are friendly even to the most red-blooded American's diet, as long as you look at how you are preparing them and watching ingredients. That way, you may only have to hunker down and force yourself to eat a salad or side dish of broccoli once a day, knowing you are getting your other 3-4 servings through foods you like to eat. Or you may start liking veggies & fruits once you learn how to prepare them properly.
Is a glass of wine a day considered moderate?? =) I'm a wino.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I DID give up smoking finally. So that's good.